Characterising the precision of a clock without any external time reference

Abstract:Determining a clock's precision usually requires comparison with a better time reference, yet no ideal reference is physically attainable. We show how a single clock can characterise its own precision using only a signal splitter and delayed trigger, whose uncertainty is explicitly accounted for. The resulting estimator depends only on tick-count statistics. A purpose-built electronic circuit validates the method without an external timekeeper or a second clock.

arXiv:2609.31832 [quant-ph]

(or arXiv:2609.31832v1 [quant-ph] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2609.31832 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

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